Public health exchange enrollment reaches about 4 million

About 4 million people have enrolled in plans offered through public health insurance exchanges, a top Obama administration official said, as enrollment continues to surge.

“The most recent data indicate that approximately 4 million people have now signed up for a private health insurance plan through the federal and state-based marketplaces since Oct. 1,” Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, wrote in a Tuesday blog post.

That exchange enrollment — based on information available this week — compares with the nearly 3.3 million enrollees as of Feb. 1 and 2.2 million who had enrolled through Dec. 28.

A full enrollment report for February, which will include state-by-state information, will be released in mid-March, federal officials said.

Some states, though, already are reporting major enrollment gains this month. For example, in California, whose exchange is the largest of the state exchanges authorized under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, enrollment grew more than 100,000 during the first two weeks of February, rising to nearly 829,000.

“These enrollment numbers mean that with six weeks to go, California has already exceeded its projected base enrollment for the 2014 open-enrollment period,” Peter Lee, executive director of the California exchange, Covered California, said last week in a statement.